HistoScale: An Efficient Approach for Computing Pseudo-Cartograms
Daniel A. Keim, Christian Panse, Mathias Schäfer, Mike Sips, Stephen C. North · KOPS (University of Konstanz) · 2003
Nowadays, two types of maps, the so-called Thematic Map and Choropleth Map, are used in Cartography and GIS-Systems. Thematic Maps are used to emphasize the spatial distribution of one or more geographic attributes. Popular thematic maps are the Choropleth Maps (Greek: choro = area, pleth = value), in which enumeration or data collec-tion units are shaded to represent different magnitudes of a variable. Besides, the statistical values are often encoded as colored regions on these maps. On both types of maps, high values are often concentrated in densely populated areas, and low statistical values are spread out over sparsely populated areas. These maps, therefore, tend to highlight patterns in large areas, which may, however, be of low importance. A cartogram can then be seen as a generalization of a familiar land-covering choropleth map. According to this interpreta-